Men's Rights Congress next week! Here's the synopsis of issues

We are looking forward to seeing many of the posters from MANN next week at the Men's Rights Congress in Washington DC, June 18-19. We have a great group of nearly forty men and women who are registered and coming from 14 states and Great Britain. We expect more. Please sign up soon if you are planning to come. We need to make accurate estimates by next Wednesday for food for lunch on Saturday so let us know soon if you are coming! Join us!

We have written a brief synopsis of men's rights issues for the Congress. We would love your feedback on it. What would you add? What would you edit? Let us know. Click 'Read More / Post Comments' to see the synopsis.

We have developed a booklet for the Congress that has a 2-4 page summary of each issue listed below. Each of the separate summaries is written by men who are experts in their topics. Authors include Glenn Sacks, Warren Farrell, Marc Angelucci, David Burroughs, Carnell Smith, Stephen Baskerville, Dean Tong and many others. These will be distributed at the Congress.

Let us know what you think!

Men’s Health – Men die on average over 4.5 years earlier than women, commit suicide 4 times more often than women, for all 10 leading causes of death, have higher death rates than women, yet our government focuses on women’s health and ignores men. We have 4 offices of women’s health in the Department of Health and Human Services, and none for men. Prostate cancer receives only a third of the funding of breast cancer from the National Institutes of Health, but kills as many men as breast cancer kills women. Funding for male specific health research is less than one half of the funding for female specific research. We need equity. Our government needs to help both men and women.

Circumcision – Over a million infant boys are subjected to painful, sometimes dangerous and life altering surgery each year without their consent. The American Medical Association tells us that routine circumcision is not medically necessary, that this procedure is invasive, painful, and is known to diminish sexual pleasure later in life. Our country has laws that protect little girls from this sort of procedure but has nothing to protect our little boys.

Domestic Violence - Although the department of Justice tell us that 835,000 men are victims of domestic violence every year these men have no services or shelters. Actually research clearly indicates that it is women who initiate domestic violence more often than men yet the feminist driven domestic violence industry does its best to make people think that men are but a tiny fraction of the victims. Billions of dollars have been spent for the aid of women who are victims. Don’t you think it is time to care about both men and women?

Paternity Fraud - With the advent of DNA testing we can now easily prove paternity. The shocking truth is that so far, of those tested who were questioning paternity, 33% have found that they were not the father! This indicates that paternity fraud is likely a profound problem which leaves many men paying for and in some cases forced to pay for children which are not actually their own. Up to this point we have trusted the mother's word about paternity. The wisdom of this assumption is now rightly being called into question.

Selective Service – Our young men must register for the draft or face stiff fines and possible incarceration, along with a denial of benefits and opportunities which are available to young women without further requirement. Our boys can be forced to serve their country and die if necessary. Our girls have no such responsibility. Is that fair?

Family Courts – Fathers are being removed from their children and families against their will and through no fault of their own. False accusations of domestic violence or child abuse are commonplace in an effort to insure custody goes to the mother. Men are then subjected to a system that forces them to pay lawyers they didn’t hire and pay child support without any system of gurantee or audit to make sure the money they pay for the benefit of their children is actually used for such. The system then refuses to enforce their ability to see their own children.

Education - After decades of shifting educational environments to help girls our boys are left to school environments that are hostile to their nature. Their more active nature is being pathologized and medicated. A striking example of this is that the recess period is now being eliminated from schools all over America. Our schools are becoming more and more unfriendly to boys. While the girls are encouraged to claim their power the boys are getting the message that they are defective. They are responding by dropping out at higher percentages than girls, failing more often, graduating less often, less likely to attend college, and, sadly, committing suicide six times more often. Our boys are very bright, traditionally outscoring girls on both math and verbal parts of the SAT’s. Their intelligence is excellent; it’s the anti-male environment that is causing the trouble. Our boys need our attention and help now!

Criminal Bias - Gender is the most significant biasing factor in determining whether or not someone will be charged, prosecuted, indicted and sentenced, as well as determining the severity of the sentence. Simply put, men get longer sentences for the same crime and are 20 times more likely than women to receive the death penalty when convicted of murder. If you are a man you will be treated more harshly by our court system.

False Accusation – 270,000 men and fathers are victimized each year across America by unfounded and false child sex abuse reports. This number is pushed much higher when you include false accusations of rape and domestic violence. Being accused of any of these crimes is often decimating to a man’s life. Even though he is proven innocent (which is often required for him not to be found guilty, in contradiction of the right of presumed innocence) he will still carry the scars of this false accusation and the damage to his reputation and psyche. The false accuser is often allowed to remain anonymous and usually is permitted to remain without responsibility for her false accusations after the fact.

Reproductive Rights - Men have no reproductive rights. Women can choose to have the baby, or an abortion, or put the baby up for adoption. The man has only one option if the woman chooses to have the child: pay child support. If a woman has the right to "opt out" of a pregnancy via abortion or adoption why shouldn’t a man also have this right? Many are suggesting "paper abortions" as a means to give men a similar right.

Wage Gap – The "Wage Gap" disappears when factors such as maternity leave, overtime hours, and educational levels are taken into account. Women tend to choose occupations that allow them choices in their time with family and options such as school or leisure. Men tend to only work full time. This difference leads many to erroneously assume that men make more for the same work. This assumption is a media sweetheart and is proclaimed loudly. It will be put to rest with the publishing of Warren Farrell’s next book on this topic.

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http://news.mensactivism.org/articles/04/06/10/228241.shtml